Eleanor Roosevelt's Prayer

Finally, I am once again connected to the internet. Our cable internet service had been out since Tuesday evening. I've been working on my laptop with a slow wireless connection since then. I am way behind in answering email, and, by accident, I deleted a group of emails that I wanted to read and/or save. If I have not responded to an email about an important matter, you may have to contact me again.

The young man who came to reconnect our internet service was efficient and pleasant. As I've said before, it's generally not the employees of Charter who disappoint me. It's the executives who decide policy for the company who are the problem.

I think of the posts which I've wanted to do, going back to my visit to England, such as St. Nicholas Cathedral in Newcastle upon Tyne, my visit to FDR's home and library, and the recent Holiday Home Tour in New Orleans, and which I have not done. I must accept that I am only one person, and with my semblance to an offline life, I can do only so much with my blog.

Ann Fontaine sent me the link to a nightly prayer by Eleanor Roosevelt, which speaks strongly to me today. Thanks, Ann. I needed this.

But perhaps the most revealing insight into Eleanor Roosevelt’s spiritual life is found in the words of her nightly prayer. According to her son Elliott, every night after a very full day’s work, his mother would slip into her old blue robe and kneel beside her bed and pray:

Our Father, who has set a restlessness in our hearts and made us all seekers after that which we can never fully find, forbid us to be satisfied with what we make of life. Draw us from base content and set our eyes on far-off goals. Keep us at tasks too hard for us that we may be driven to thee for strength. Deliver us from fretfulness and self-pitying; make us sure of the good we cannot see and of the hidden good in the world. Open our eyes to simple beauty all around us and our hearts to the loveliness men hide from us because we do not try to understand them. Save us from ourselves and show us a vision of a world made new.

When I visited my friend in Connecticut, we did not have time to visit Eleanor's retreat, Val-Kill. On my next visit, and I have been invited back, I'd very much like to go.

From the Anglican Examiner.

"Show Kindness And Mercy"

It appears that we may not have a health care bill passed before Christmas. The bill under consideration now is a bad bill, written by the likes of Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, and Mary Landrieu, whose main concern appears to be cost containment. My start position is to have universal health care coverage and work from there how to achieve the goal in a way that the country can afford.

The long discussion thread to this post, demonstrates the great divisions in our country as to which priorities are important in passing a health care reform bill.

This morning's Lectionary reading from Zechariah is a timely reminder, at least to me, of what we should be about in passing health care reform.

Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgements, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear.

Zechariah 7: 9-11

O ADONAI

December 18

O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel,
qui Moysi in igne flammæ rubi apparuisti,
et ei in Sina legem dedisti:
veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.


O Adonai, and Ruler of the house of Israel,
Who didst appear unto Moses in the burning bush,
and gavest him the law in Sinai,
come to redeem us with an outstretched arm!


Isaiah 11:4-5

But with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

Antiphon sung by the Dominican student brothers at Oxford.

Text from Fish Eaters.

Please Continue To Pray For Sammy

Grandmere Mimi,

Sammy Cat still has no diagnosis after additional blood work. All tests have come back negative. She is scheduled for an abdominal ultrasound tomorrow ... Friday, Dec. 18. Perhaps I will know something after that. Prayers will be deeply appreciated.

Whiteycat

O Sapientia

December 17

O Sapientia, quæ ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,
attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter
suaviterque disponens omnia:
veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiæ.


O Wisdom that comest out of the mouth of the Most High,
that reachest from one end to another,
and orderest all things mightily and sweetly,
come to teach us the way of prudence!


Isaiah 11:2-3

The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;


I know it's not 2006, but enjoy anyway.

Antiphon sung by the Dominican student brothers at Oxford.

Text of antiphon from Fish Eaters.

"CompromiseCareTM"

# Under CompromiseCare^TM, people with no coverage will be allowed to keep their current plan.

# Medicare will be extended to 55-year-olds as soon as they turn 65.

# You will have access to cheap Canadian drugs if you live in Canada.

# States whose names contain vowels will be allowed to opt out of the plan.

# You get to choose which doctor you cannot afford to see.

See Borowitz for the rest of the details of the new Senate plan.

Thanks to Ann.


Atrios opines:

"In other words, you're forcing people to buy shitty insurance that they can't afford. Why would anyone possibly object to that? "

O Antiphons

The painting is from the massive Ghent altarpiece, "The Adoration of the Lamb" by Hubert and Jan van Eyck at St. Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. Wiki shows the entire altarpiece, except for the missing parts.

The well-known carol, “O come, O come, Emmanuel,” provides just such a passageway linking the old and the new. The carol’s familiar names for Christ are based on the Advent Antiphons—the “Great O’s”—which date back possibly to the sixth century. These antiphons—short devotional texts chanted before and after a psalm or canticle—were sung before and after the Magnificat, the Song of Mary, at Vespers from December 16 through December 23. Each of the antiphons greets the Messiah and ends with a petition of hope. The simple refrain of the carol, “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!” sets the tone for this Advent time of waiting and expectation.

From Hasten the Kingdom: Praying the O Antiphons of Advent by Mary Winifred, C.A. (Liturgical Press, 1996).

Over the next several days, beginning today, I plan to post the "O Antiphon" of the day.

Note: Reposted from last year with slight editing. Rather than think of the reposts as due to laziness, please regard them as Wounded Bird traditions. Thank you.

Lost Woman

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.

"She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Obama Democrat."

"I am,"replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."

Apropos after my post inducting Joe Lieberman into the Hall of Shame and the long discussion thread that followed.

Thanks to Ann.

Angels of Mercy

Most people don't know
there are angels whose
only job is to make sure
you don't get too
comfortable & fall
asleep & miss your life.


From StoryPeople.

Dancing Prospector

An old prospector shuffled into the town of El Indio, Texas, leading an tired old mule. The old man headed straight for the only saloon in town to clear his parched throat. He walked up to the saloon and tied his old mule to the hitch rail. As he stood there, brushing some of the dust from his face and clothes, a young gunslinger stepped out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.

The young gunslinger looked at the old man and laughed, saying, "Hey old man, have you ever danced?" The old man looked up at the gunslinger andsaid, "No, I never did dance . . . never really wanted to."

A crowd had gathered as the gunslinger grinned and said, "Well, you old fool, you're gonna' dance now!" and started shooting at the old man's feet. The prospector, not wanting to get a toe blown off, started hopping around like a flea on a hot skillet. Everybody was laughing, fit to be tied.

When his last bullet had been fired, the young gunslinger, still laughing, holstered his gun and turned around to go back into the saloon. The old man turned to his pack mule, pulled out a double-barreled shotgun, and cocked both hammers. The loud clicks carried clearly through the desert air.

The crowd stopped laughing immediately. The young gunslinger heard the sounds too, and he turned around very slowly. The silence was almost deafening. The crowd watched as the young gunman stared at the old timer and the large gaping holes of those twin barrels.

The barrels of the shotgun never wavered in the old man's hands, as he quietly said, "Son, have you ever kissed a mule's ass?"

The gunslinger swallowed hard and said, "No sir. . . . But . . . I've always
wanted to."

There are two lessons for us all here:

Don't waste ammunition.

Don't mess with old people.

Don't blame me. Blame Paul (A.) I wonder if Paul thinks I'm old.

Thanks, Paul. I needed a joke.